And the two of us run a website called the minimalist dot com.

And today we’re gonna talk to you about what it means to be a part of a community.

But first, we wanna share a story with you about how it became rich.

Imagine your life, a year from now. Two years from now. Five years from now.

What is it gonna look like? Imagine a life with less.

Less stuff. Less clutter. Less stress in death and discontent.

A life with fewer distractions. You’re joking right now, right?

Dude, we’re trying to give a talk. Sorry about that.

Now, imagine a life with more. More time, more meaningful relationships, more growth and contribution.

A life of passion, unencumbered by the trappings and the chaotic world around you.

What you’re imagining is an intentional life. It’s not a perfect life.

It’s not even an easy life. But a simple one.

What you’re imagining is a rich life. The kind of rich that has nothing to do with wealth.

You know…I used to think rich was earning fifty thousand dollars a year.

Then when I started climbing the corporate ladder in my twenties. I quickly begin turning fifty grand but I didn’t feel rich.

So I tried to adjust for inflation. May be seventy five thousand dollars a year was rich.

Maybe ninety thousand. Maybe six figures. Or maybe owning a bunch of stuff. Maybe that was rich.

Well…whatever rich was. I knew that once I got there, I would finally be happy.

So as I made more money, I spent more money all in the pursuit of the American dream.

All in the pursuit of happiness. But the closer I got, the farther way the happiness was.

Five years ago, my entire life was different from what it is today. Radically different.

I had everything I ever wanted. I had everything I supposed to have. I had an impressive job title with respectable corporation.

A successful career managing hundreds of employees. I earned the six figure income.

I bought a fancy new car every couple years. I own a huge three bedroom condo, it even had two living rooms.

I have no idea why single guy needs two living rooms.

I was living the American dream. Everyone around me said I was successful.

But I was only a sensibly successful. You see I also had a bunch of things that were hard to see

From the outside. Even though I earned a lot of money. I had heaps and debt.

But chasing the American dream. It cost me a lot more than money.

My life was filled with stress and anxiety and discontent.

I was miserable. I may have looked successful but I certainly didn’t feel successful.

And it got to a point my life where I don’t know what’s important anymore.

But one thing was clear, there was this gaping void in my life. So I tried to fill that void the same way many people do with stuff.

Lots of stuff. I was filling the void with consumer purchases. Bought

New cars and electronics and closets for an expensive clothes.

I bought furniture and expensive home decorations. And I was make sure that all are the latest gadgets.

I owe enough cash the bank. I paid for expensive meals rounds of drinks and frivolous vacations with credit cards.

I was spending money faster then I earned it. Attempting to buy my way to happiness, and I thought I get there one day eventually.

I mean happiness had to be somewhere just around the corner, right?

But the stuff didn’t fill the void. Why it didn’t?

And because I didn’t know what was important. I continue to fill the void with stuff going further into debt.

Working hard to buy things that won’t making me happy. This went on for years.

A terrible cycle lather rinse repeat.

By my late twenties, my life from the outside looked great.

But on the inside, I was a wreck. I was several years divorced. I was unhealthy. I was stuck.

I drink a lot. I did drugs a lot. I uses many pacifiers as I could.

And I continue to work 60-70 sometimes 80 hours a week.

And I first look some of the most important aspects of my life. I barely ever thought about my health.

My relationships. My passions. And worst of all, I felt stagnant.

I certainly wasn’t contributing to others and I wasn’t growing.

My life lacked meaning, purpose, passion. If you would have asked me what I was passionate about.

I would look to you like a deer in headlights. What was my passionate about?

I had no idea. I was living paycheck to paycheck. Living for paycheck. Living for stuff. Living for career that I didn’t love.

But I wasn’t really living at all. I was depressed.

Then, as I was approaching my thirties, I noticed something different about my best friend of twenty-something years.

Josh seems happy for the first time in a really long time that I truly happy. Estatic.

But I didn’t understand why. We worked side by side in the same corporation through out the twenties both climbing the ranks.

And he has been just as miserable as me.

Something had to change to boot. He has just come through to the most difficult events of his life.

His mother just passed away. And his marriage ended both in the same month.

He wasn’t supposed to be happy. He certainly wasn’t supposed to be happier than me.

So I did what any best friend would do. I took Josh out to lunch. I sat him down.

And I asked him a question. Why the hell are you so happy?

He spent the next 20 minutes telling me about something called minimalism.

He talked about how he spent the last few months simplifying his life.

Getting the clutter out of the way, to make room for what was truly important.

And then he introduced me to an entire community of people who had done the same thing.

He introduced me to a guy named Colin White a 24 year-old entrepreneur who travels to a new country every four months.

Carrying with everything that he owned.

Then there was Joshua Backer, a 36 year-old husband and father of two with a full time job and a car and a house in suburban Vermont.

And then he show me Corney Carbor, a 40 year-old wife and mother to a teenage daughter in Salt Lake City.

And there was leave about a 38 year-old husband and father of six in San Francisco.

Although, all these people were living considerably different lives.

People from different backgrounds with children and families in different work situations.

They all share at least two things in common.

First, they were living deliberate meaningful lives.

They were passionate and purpose driven. They seemed much richer than any other so-called rich as I worked with in the corporate room.

And second, they attributed their meaningful lives to the things called minimalism.

So me being the problem solving guy and I am.

I decided to become a minimalist right there on the spot.

I looked up at Josh. I excitedly declared… alright man, I’m gonna do. I’m in.

I’m gonna be a minimalist. Now what?

You see…I don’t wanna spend months spear down my items like he had that was great for him.

But I wanted faster results. So we came up with this idea of a packing party.

We decided to pack all my belongings as if we’re moving.

And then I would unpack only the items I needed over the next three weeks.

Josh literally helped me box up everything. My clothes, y kitchen ware, my towels, my TV’s, my electronics.

My framed photographs and paintings, my toiletries, even my furniture. Everything.

After nine hours and a couple pizza deliveries, everything was packed.

So there Josh and I were, sitting in my second living room feeling exhausted.

Staring at boxes stacked halfway to my 12-foot ceilings. My condo was empty and everything’s my cardboard, everything I own.

Every single thing I’ve worked hard for over the last decade was sitting there in that room.

Just boxes, stacked on top of boxes, stacked on top of boxes. Now each box was labeled.

So I know where to go when they needed a particular item labels like living room, junk drawer number one, kitchenware, bedroom closet, junk drawer number nine.

So forth and so on, I spent the next 21 days unpacking only the items I needed.

My toothbrush, my bed and bed sheets. The furniture I actually use. Some kitchenware, a toolset just the things that I value to my life.

After three weeks, 80 percent of my stuff was still sitting in those boxes, just sitting there on accessed.

All those things, that were supposed to make me happy, they weren’t doing their job.

So I decided to donate and sell all of it. And you know what?

I started to feel rich for the first time. I started to feel rich once I got everything out of the way.

And made room for everything that remains.

A month later, my entire perspective has changed.

And I thought to myself maybe some people might find value in my story and our story.

So Ryan and I did…I guess anyone would do. we started a blog.

We call it the minimalists. That was three years ago.

And something amazing happened. 52 people visit our website in the first month.

52! I realize that might sound unremarkable at first.

But then in our story was resonating with dozens people .

And then other amazing things started happening. 52 readers turned into 500.

500 became 5000. And now more than 2 million people a year read our words.

It turns out that when you add values to people’s lives, they’re pretty eager to share the message with

Their friends and their family and add value to their lives.

Adding values, it’s a basic human instinct. In fact that’s why we’re here today.

A couple years ago, Ryan and I moved from Ohio to Montana.

And what we discovered here was an entire of people. People who weren’t traditionally wealthy.

But who were rich in a different way. We discovered so many people who were willing to contribute beyond themselves.

And that’s what makes a real community, contribution.

And so we’d like to encourage everyone to take a look at your day-to-day lives.

Take a look at whatever eats up the majority of your time.

Is it checking email or Facebook? Or watching TV?

Is it shopping online? Or at retail stores?

Is working hard for a paycheck to buy stuff you don’t need, things that will make you happy?

Now, it’s not that we think that there’s anything inherently wrong with material possessions.

Or working a 9 to 5. There’s not. We all need some stuff.

We all have to pay the bills, right? It’s just that when we put those things first.

We tend to lose sight of our real priorities.

We lose sight of life’s purpose. And so maybe getting some of the excess stuff out of the way.

Clearing the clutter from our lives can help us all focus on…well…everything that remains.

Things like health, relationships, growth, contribution, community.

Thank you.